Monday, September 14, 2009

Carcosa Review Posted

I'm hoping it doesn't become a circus (especially since it's 10 months old), but you know how these things go. My motivation for posting it on RPG.net was simply to do what I've been telling other people to do: Put reviews up in places other than the usual echo chambers... and what other reviews did I have laying around?

6 comments:

Leaving aside the specific review of Carcosa, I wanted to look at a couple of points from your article in a more general sense:

Can it be that the traditional revival is not built on quality games that stretch the imagination, but rather the wish of its aging players to retain their childhoods? In addition to preserving the games they played, are they also wanting to preserve their juvenile sense of innocence and refuse to let their gaming tastes broaden with them?

A 15 year old could point at media for an 11 year old and call it "juvenile"... but that doesn't make the 15 year old's media particularly mature in and of itself. ;)

But actual outrage and condemnation of fictional circumstance? Ridiculous!

Either you accept that some material goes "too far" and shouldn't be acceptable (in which case you share the POV of the people you're claiming to disagree with, just not the specific conclusion in the case of Carcosa) or you think *EVERY* text-based fiction should be acceptable, no matter what.

Honestly the topic has a lot more grey to it than the black and white way you're presenting things in your review. I think there's merit in discussing where the line is with regards to RPGs and game fiction... but claiming there are NO lines at all? Seriously? :)

I believe every has, and is entitled to, their personal sense of what goes to far and what they will accept in their entertainment and gaming.

I'm not disputing that.

I do think that is a completely different thing than what should be considered acceptable to exist at all.

And for that, I believe there should not be any sort of line, no matter how vile. Doesn't mean I'll like it or support it (and I may actively campaign against it, as I have white power and Nazi metal bands), but that's it.

Now that you have had your fill of Middle American opinions on Carcosa, you are soliciting the views of Euro-socialists and other malcontents? Is Carcosa compatible with post-feminist readings of the Euronormative neo-hegemonist patriarchy? What does Foucault and Derrida say on the rape of fictious entities? And is James Raggi, to be blunt, a phallocrat?

And for that, I believe there should not be any sort of line, no matter how vile.

Despite whatever we may personally feel on this subject, there actually is a legal line for publishers (including people publishing online) that stepping past can carry serious consequences. We can express support or disdain for these laws, but that doesn't change the fact that they exist.

Encouraging people to disregard these lines of acceptable content is genuinely bad advice, unless you make them aware of where the limits are and let them gradually push against them rather than blindly rush past them.